Today in History
1888 – American inventor William Burroughs patents a ‘‘calculating machine’’, an early calculator.
1911 – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, right, is stolen from the Louvre in Paris. Italian Vincenzo Perugia hid in a cupboard, removed the painting, and escaped while the museum was closed for cleaning. He was arrested more than two years later.
1915 – New Zealanders attack Hill 60 during the ill-conceived Gallipoli campaign.
1940 – Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky dies after being attacked by an assassin the previous day.
1958 – Auckland becomes the first city in New Zealand to introduce the ‘‘Barnes Dance’’ street-crossing system, with traffic lights allowing pedestrians to cross in all directions at the same time.
1959 – Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the United States.
1983 – Philippines opposition leader Benigno Aquino is assassinated as he steps from a plane in Manila after three years of self-imposed exile in the US.
1987 – Dirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, premieres.
1991 – Just three days after it began, a coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev collapses amid public opposition led by Boris Yeltsin. Gorbachev later resigned.
2013 – The Government Communications Security Bureau is given explicit powers by Parliament to spy on New Zealanders.